Disease Ionomics: Understanding the Role of Ions in Complex Disease

Ionomics is a novel multidisciplinary field that uses advanced techniques to investigate the composition and distribution of all minerals and trace elements in a living organism and their variations under diverse physiological and pathological conditions. It involves both high-throughput elemental profiling technologies and bioinformatic methods, providing opportunities to study the molecular mechanism underlying the metabolism, homeostasis, and cross-talk of these elements. While much effort has been made in exploring the ionomic traits relating to plant physiology and nutrition, the use of ionomics in the research of serious diseases is still in progress. In recent years, a number of ionomic studies have been carried out for a variety of complex diseases, which offer theoretical and practical insights into the etiology, early diagnosis, prognosis, and therapy of them. This review aims to give an overview of recent applications of ionomics in the study of complex diseases and discuss the latest advances and future trends in this area. Overall, disease ionomics may provide substantial information for systematic understanding of the properties of the elements and the dynamic network of elements involved in the onset and development of diseases.     

Effect of hyperbranched poly(citric polyethylene glycol) with various polyethylene glycol chain lengths on starch plasticization and retrogradation

A series of hyperbranched poly(citric polyethylene glycol) (PCPEG) materials with varied polyethylene glycol (PEG) chain lengths as plasticizers were mixed with maize starch (MS) via cooking and film‐forming. The structure, pasting property, plasticization, aging property, moisture absorption and compatibility of plasticized starches were studied by means of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X‐ray diffraction, rapid viscosity analysis, tension testing, moisture absorption measurements and scanning electron microscopy. Compared with PEG and citric acid, PCPEG was more effective in promoting starch chain movement and inhibiting the retrogradation of starch film. Also, PCPEG/MS had smaller moisture content. The longer the plasticizer chain, the better were the aging resistance and moisture resistance of starch. But with an increase of PEG chain length, mechanical properties of PCPEG/MS deteriorated and the compatibility between PCPEG and MS decreased. The hyperbranched derivative of PEG with longer chain exhibited improved plasticization and compatibility with starch. © 2019 Society of Chemical Industry     

测量二次电子空间分布特征矩阵法的有效性分析

为了准确测量不同材料在实际环境中的二次电子空间分布，设计了一种新型的二次电子发射空间分布测量结构，给出了实验测量原理，用求解特征矩阵的方法对实验结果进行处理，得到了所需的二次电子空间分布。通过模拟计算对该测量方法进行了校验，模拟结果与假设二次电子空间分布函数相吻合，表明该测量方法可靠、测量精度高，为后续样机研制奠定了理论基础。     

EPMDA: an efficient privacy-preserving multi-dimensional data aggregation scheme for edge computing-based IoT system

In order to perform multi-dimensional data aggregation operations efficiently in edge computing-based Internet of things (IoT) systems, a new efficient privacy-preserving multi-dimensional data aggregation (EPMDA) scheme is proposed in this paper. EPMDA scheme is characterized by employing the homomorphic Paillier encryption and SM9 signature algorithm. To improve the computation efficiency of the Paillier encryption operation, EPMDA scheme generates a pre-computed modular exponentiation table of each dimensional data,and the Paillier encryption operation can be implemented by using only several modular multiplications. For the multi-dimensional data, the scheme concatenates zeros between two adjacent dimensional data to avoid data overflow in the sum operation of ciphertexts. To enhance security, EPMDA scheme sets random number at the high address of the exponent. Moreover, the scheme utilizes SM9 signature scheme to guarantee device authentication and data integrity. The performance evaluation and comparison show that EPMDA scheme is more efficient than the existing multi-dimensional data aggregation schemes.     

锂辉石-氧化钙烧结法提锂的物相重构与动力学

对锂辉石-氧化钙烧结过程进行热力学分析，绘制了各反应Gibbs自由能与温度的关系图。结果表明，Al₂O₃会优先和Na₂O、Li₂O、K₂O反应，然后与CaO反应生成CaO·Al₂O₃，而且烧结温度需高于1060℃以保证LiAlSi₂O₆能够完成晶形转变。并探讨了锂辉石-氧化钙烧结法提锂的反应机理。考察了不同烧结条件对锂浸出率的影响并对熟料进行X射线衍射（XRD）分析表征。实验结果表明，在配料比为1∶1.25、烧结温度1150℃、烧结时间60min时，锂的浸出率达到92.14%，熟料中的主要物相为Ca₂SiO₄与LiAlO₂。利用XRD和扫描电镜-能谱联用仪（SEM-EDS）对熟料与浸出渣的物相、显微形貌及元素分布情况进行了分析表征。为了确定烧结反应的控制性步骤，在最优烧结条件的基础上对烧结过程进行动力学分析，结果表明，锂辉石-氧化钙烧结体系属于球形颗粒三维界面化学反应控制，烧结过程的动力学拟合方程为\mathrm{1}-{(\mathrm{1}-x)}^{\mathrm{1}/\mathrm{3}}=\mathrm{0.00677}t。     

气液螺旋环状流压降特性研究

考虑旋流衰减的影响，对气液螺旋环状流的压降特性进行研究并推导出了螺旋环状流压降预测模型。定义压降旋-直比系数为气液两相螺旋环状流和气液两相直流的压降之比，以此来表征旋流衰减对压降的影响。基于量纲分析的方法对压降旋-直比系数进行分析，推导出其表达式，压降旋-直比系数依赖于Lockhart-Martinelli 参数和气相Froude数变化。最终，得出了气液两相螺旋环状流的压降预测模型。在50 mm内径的水平管内对螺旋环状流的压降特性进行了实验研究，其中气相表观流速变化范围为10~16 m/s，体积含液率（LVF）变化范围为0.6%~4.8%。通过与实验数据进行对比，压降预测模型的相对误差在±15%以内，为工程应用提供了参考。